TORY MP ANN WIDDECOMBE LOSES THE PLOT: Mark Goodacre has noted her New Statesman article "Why the Jews are wrong", on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and commented on some of the rather serious problems in it. This paragraph also stands out to me (my emphasis):

If I thought there was a current of anti- Semitism in the film I would not take this attitude, but there is not. Short of pretending that the events took place somewhere other than the Holy Land and that the Sanhedrin was not a Jewish court, it is difficult to see how Gibson could give the Jews a fairer deal. He is much harsher on the Romans who, laughing and gloating, inflict the brutality; stresses that Christ himself was a Jew and omits from the subtitles the most damning line of all: "His blood be on us and on our children."

How about by leaving out the fantasy material from the Emmerich visions? And he could even have left out altogether that "most damning line of all" (most damning to whom?) from Matthew's Gospel, which almost certainly was made up by the writer of Matthew. (But it's in the Bible! How could he have left it out? Well, for starters, Mark, Luke, and John did.) As for the omitting of the subtitle, want to make any bets on how long it takes for the line to be added back in when the subtitles are retranslated into other languages? I haven't seen the movie yet and I don't know whether I'll think it's anti-Semitic, but I know that those two things are there.

Also, Ms. Widdecombe doesn't seen to have heard that the Vatican denies that the Pope said "It is as it was."

(Weirdly, the New Statesman site let me through to the article the first time I hit the link, but now it's demanding either a subscriber ID or some money. It just did the same thing with my other browser. Looks like you get one free shot at it per browser; make the most of it.)

UPDATE (7 April): Mark Goodacre replies:

On Jim's other point, about Catherine Emmerich's visions, I think the key question is whether the ones that are used are themselves anti-Jewish. In other words, was the film itself influenced by her anti-Semitism? William Fulco (translator and theological consultant) and Benedict Fitzgerald (co-screenwriter) emphatically deny this (see the blog entry on this). I think there may be grounds for their denial. I have recently begun reading Catherine Emmerich's Dolorous Passion and was particularly struck by the similarities and differences between her depiction and the film's depiction of Simon of Cyrene. It is clear that the film is influenced by Emmerich at this point, specifically Simon's exhorting the soldiers to leave Jesus alone, but crucially where Emmerich clearly depicts Simon as a pagan, Gibson insists that this heroic figure was a Jew

How about the following from the Beliefnet article linked to above?

Payment to people to come to courtyard
Bible references: Matthew 26:59-60
In the movie but not the Bible: In a very brief scene, money is seen changing hands, with the implication that people are being paid to testify against Jesus. This probably refers to Matthew 26, which says "The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death." But no money is mentioned in the gospels.

Other sources: "The Dolorous Passion" says "The High Priests now sent for those whom they knew to be the most bitterly opposed to Jesus, and desired them to assemble the witnesses ...The proud Sadducees ...whom Jesus had so often reproved before the people, were actually dying for revenge. They hastened to all the inns to seek out those persons whom they knew to be enemies of our Lord, and offered them bribes in order to secure their appearance."

Also, what about that episode where Jesus is thrown off the bridge by the crowd who arrested him (which crowd, according to the Gospels, came from the Jewish chief priests and elders [e.g., Mark 14:43])?

Mark (Goodacre) also says he couldn't hear the blood libel line from Matthew in the movie. As I said, I haven't seen it yet; I was going by what all the reports said. If they are wrong, someone please correct me. If it's there at all, even if it can't be heard very well, some other translator is likely to know about it and add the subtitle.

UPDATE: Aramaist Ed Cook e-mails:

With reference to your note, "Mark also says he couldn't hear the blood libel line from Matthew in the movie." I heard it; Caiaphas speaks it, in Aramaic, in the middle of a throng yelling "Let him be crucified!" (yitstalev), so it's easy to miss. There was no subtitle. Do the foreign versions make their translations from the English subtitles (as I think likely) or do they translate them directly from the soundtrack? If the latter, do they include some of the Latin by-play among the soldiers at the scourging, which also wasn't subtitled?

As far as I know there are no translations of the subtitles yet. When someone gets around to them I don't know how they will proceed. I am just confident that if ideological anti-Semites know that the blood libel line is there in the Aramaic, they will be sure to include in their translation, no matter what the English subtitles say.

Incidentally, if it's Caiaphas saying the line, that's an important departure from Matthew 27:25, which has "all the people" saying it. Instead of being an impulsive cry by a riotous crowd, it becomes a statement by the high priest himself.

UPDATE: Mark Goodacre comments on my updates of today. I think I'll just summarize my point in response to Widdecombe: Gibson could have "give[n] the Jews a fairer deal" by not adding Emmerich's embellishments that show Jews bribing witnesses and brutalizing Jesus beyond the NT descriptions and by leaving out the blood libel line from Matthew. As to whether that line gets translated in new subtitles, no one would be happier than I to have my fears turn out to be groundless. If anyone sees a version with translated subtitles, please let me know what it does with Caiaphas' line.

NOT A PHILOLOGIST FOR NOTHING:

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Aramaic tongue too!

ANOTHER DISTURBING REPORT on responses to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in the Arab world is found in "Mel Gibson: Arab world messiah" in Salon today. If you're not a subscriber, you have to watch a brief ad to access the article. Excerpt:

In Lebanon, says As'ad AbuKhalil, a California State University professor of political science, the movie "is playing to great reviews. It was screened for the Lebanese president, who rendered a very strong verdict in favor. He attributed all the controversy to Zionist conspiracy. It was also screened for the Maronite Christian patriarch in Lebanon, who also gave it rave reviews. The verdict has been very positive uniformly. Newspapers are covering the controversy and using it to indicate Zionist intimidation."

Gibson's American partisans have denied that his sanguinary passion play works, even inadvertently, as anti-Jewish propaganda. In the Middle East, though, just a few miles from the scene of the crime, audiences are interpreting the movie much like the Denver preacher whose church sign declared, "Jews Killed the Lord Jesus." With its claims of historical truth, "The Passion," which portrays a weary Pontius Pilate coerced into brutality against Jesus by a vicious, fawning cabal of hook-nosed Jewish priests, is being taken as further evidence of the Jews' elemental cruelty.

"This is an injection of medieval anti-Semitism, and not only in the U.S.," AbuKhalil says of the film. "The judgment of this movie should not be confined to whether this is going to result in anti-Jewish manifestations around American movie theaters but, more importantly, whether this movie will inject classic medieval anti-Semitism into world public opinion."

Despite the rabid Judeophobia of many Muslim fundamentalists, medieval anti-Semitism is an uneasy fit with Islamic doctrine. For Muslims, of course, Jesus isn't the Lord, and, according to the Quran, Jews didn't kill him. In Islamic doctrine, Jesus, a prophet, wasn't crucified at all -- it only seemed that way. "They said, 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah' -- but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear to them," says the Quran.

Yet now, thanks at least in part to Gibson, the ancient calumny that Jews are Christ killers is gaining currency even among people who don't believe that Christ was killed.

HAPPY PASSOVER, which begins tonight at sundown. Biblical passages that describe the precepts for Passover include Exodus 12 and Exodus 23:15 and Leviticus 23:5-8 and Numbers 9:1-14 and Deuteronomy 16:1-8 and Ezekiel 45:21-25.

THE TIBERIAS EXCAVATION has recovered more goodies, including the ruins of a perfume workshop:

More treasures found in Tiberias
Ancient Tiberias' nickname of the "treasured city" was further justified when the remains of a perfume workshop and store were discovered at an archaeological dig in the area yesterday. Among the findings were a stone used for crushing plants, a clay pitcher, a small clay bottle, and a small bronze spoon, all of which apparently date back to the ninth century. Weizman Institute researchers are to visit the site today to shed light on which perfumes were in fact produced there. (Eli Ashkenazi)

(Ha'aretz via Explorator.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Committee decries lack of archaeological supervision on Temple Mount (Jerusalem Post)
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The non-partisan 'Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount' on Sunday both privately and publicly decried the ongoing lack of archaeological supervision at the Jerusalem holy site.

[...]

THE CRUCIFIED MAN is the subject of a Reuter's article:

Jewish remains give clues on crucifixion
Mon 5 April, 2004 02:30

By Megan Goldin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The graphic portrayal of the crucifixion of Jesus in Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" has brought the ancient world's execution method of choice in all its horror to the big screen.

Jesus is the best known victim of crucifixion. But thousands of other Jews were put to death on the cross by the Romans, trying to quash Jewish rebellions in the Holy Land in the first century.

Yet strangely the remains of only one victim have ever been found. He was Yehohanan Ben Hagkol, a Jewish man whose heel bone, excavated by archaeologists near Jerusalem in 1968, still had a nail embedded in it.

"It is the only case ever found in the world where there is indisputable evidence of crucifixion," said Joe Zias, a physical anthropologist who examined the remains of Yehohanan Ben Hagkol.

"We've looked at thousands of skeletons in Jerusalem. Some were decapitated. Others were mutilated. But we've never found another one that was crucified."

[...]

UPDATE: Mark Goodacre has an interesting comment on the confident assertion (one that I've made myself) that the nails must have gone through the wrists rather than the palms:

I understand the anatomical point here, but if victims could be tied, might they not also have been nailed through the palms of the hands? Is the anatomical point the only one in favour of nailing through the wrists and if so, would not the possibility of victims being tied partly negate that? I wonder whether those filmic depictions of Jesus being nailed through the wrists (from The Day That Christ Died in 1980 onwards) are as much influenced by the Turin Shroud as by the anatomical evidence, not least given the fact that interest in the Shroud was intensifying in this period.

This is a good point. One minor argument against it would be the pain factor: getting a nail through the palm would be painful enough, but getting it through the wrist, where there is a major nerve, would be unbearably excruciating and would have produced more exemplary screams of agony for the locals to think about. The Romans seemed to have refined torture to an art and I doubt that they would have missed this point. Also, the struggles of a crucified person (Can we safely say "man?" Is there any evidence that women were ever crucified?) might tear the palms loose even if tied (which, of course, might have been regarded as adding to the spectacle), while the wrist would have stayed firmly anchored no matter what. Still, who knows?

The article raises another question in my mind. It mentions the truism that crucified bodies are hard to come by these days in part because the nails used to crucify someone were used as amulets. Can anyone tell me what the evidence for this is? I can't remember any references to crucifixion nails in the Greek Magical Papyri, although I may just have forgotten them. And I just checked the materias list in Morgan's translation of Sepher HaRazim and they are not listed. Where are there references to crucifixion nails as amulets?

UPDATE: Arne Halbakken e-mails:

Today you blogged, "Is there any evidence that women were ever crucified?"

I'm assuming you are thinking of literary evidence and not physical evidence.

Hengel's Crucifixion, p. 36, cites Eusebius 5. 1. 41, "...suspended on a stake, she was exposed as food to wild beasts. To look at her, as she hung cross-wise..." in reference to "...the slave girl Blandin during the persecution of Christians in Lyons."

I believe that there is another reference that Hengel made but I don't have time to look it up at the moment.


You also blogged, "It mentions the truism that crucified bodies are hard to come by these days in part because the nails used to crucify someone were used as amulets. Can anyone tell me what the evidence for this is?"

Hengel, p. 32, wrote, "Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis 28.36, and the witch in Lucan, De Bello Civili 6.543f. 547, know of of the magical use of nails and bonds employed at a crucifixion."

He also points me to Joe Zias's "Crucifixion in Antiquity" article, which has additional information from rabbinic texts on the crucifixion of women and the magical use of crucifixion nails.

THE OPERA SUSANNAH, based on the addition to Daniel in the Apocrypha, has opened in Rochester:

'Susannah' opens at Eastman (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)


By John Pitcher
Staff music critic

(April 2, 2004) � One of the longest running hits in the history of American opera is on stage at the Eastman Theatre, and it�s helping the Eastman Opera Theatre close out its 2003-04 season on a glorious high note.

Carlisle Floyd�s Susannah, which opened Thursday, is a little opera � at a mere two hours it�s positively bite-sized by opera standards � but it�s a miraculous one that packs an enormous emotional punch. It boasts some of the most complex and memorable characters in the entire opera repertoire, and its melodies are as sweet and lyrical as any composed by Puccini.

Floyd based his opera on the apocryphal biblical story of Susannah and the Elders, updating and Americanizing it by setting it in a fictional Bible Belt town called New Hope Valley, Tenn. Susannah is a genuinely good and spirited teenager who lives in the mountains with her older brother, Sam, a sweet and passive drunkard that Floyd describes as an �uncomprehended poet and recluse.�

[...]

EARLY RESPONSES to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in Europe are summarized in "Gibson film stirs Euro passions" (Toronto Star). It's too long to excerpt properly, but here's something on France. Spain, Germany, Britain, Ireland, and Italy are also discussed.

But one thing is certain: Gibson's movie continues to arouse passions in Europe � and nowhere more so than in France, where a war of words has broken out between Tarak Ben Ammar, the film's distributor, and Marin Karmitz, a high-profile figure in the art house cinema business.

Karmitz refused to program Passion in his MK2 chain of theatres and publicly denounced the film as "fascist propaganda" for its supposed depiction of barbarity as spectacle, its "revisionist" take on history and its allegedly anti-Semitic representation of Jews.

Ben Ammar, whose newly formed Quinta Distribution releases the movie this week, hit back forcefully. "This is not a fascist movie. On the contrary � 50 million people have seen the film so far; I don't think they're all fascists," says Ben Ammar, a Tunisia-born Muslim. Quinta has screened the movie in France to Holocaust survivors and prominent Jewish leaders. "Not one said it was anti-Semitic," Ben Ammar adds.

French distributors held Gibson's opus at arm's length from the outset. By the time of the film's U.S. release, France was the only major territory for which the picture had not been acquired.

[...]

Then up popped Ben Ammar, who cited his Muslim faith and his credits as producer on several biblical projects � including everything from Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth to Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979) � as giving him the legitimacy to handle Passion.

IN PRAISE OF PRINTED MANUALS: Rub�n G�mez gets it exactly right in his Bible Software Review blog. Excerpt (but read it all):

Zondervan states that "in the interest of being environmentally responsible, there is no print manual with this software", in reference to their Bible Study Library line of products. And then they add, "The entire manual is included under the Help Menu in the program. You are welcome to print it from there if you desire." I beg your pardon! Do you mean to say that you want to be "environmentally responsible" but that it is okay if I, the user, spend hundreds of pages of paper and a good bit of ink printing the online help? Doesn't seem to make much sense to me! I know that different people have different tastes and study habits, but I for one deeply regret the fact that most Bible software vendors (with some notable exceptions!) are no longer providing detailed printed manuals. I can think of a good number of reasons why printed manuals are valuable...

Let me add three more reasons to his list:

(g) If you're carrying around a device - say, a digital camera - you can easily enough carry around a printed manual too, but not a manual that only comes in a computer.

(h) Even if it's a laptop you're carrying around, the online manual (where the really useful infomation usually is) can only be accessed if you can find an Internet connection.

(i) If your computer isn't working, it's pretty hard to consult the manual to see if you can sort out the problem when the manual is only accessible on the working machine.

Software companies are being lazy and cheap, not "environmentally responsible."

ARCHAEOLOGICA NEWS, an important compiler of media coverage of archaeology, has been unavailable for the last few days. Does anyone know what's happened to it?

MORE REACTIONS IN THE ARAB WORLD to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (via Bible and Intepretation News). Plenty to worry about here. Worth reading in full.

Arab censors giving 'Passion' wide latitude
Gibson film packs Mideast movie houses (SFGate)

Charles Levinson, Chronicle Foreign Service

Arab governments across the Middle East are bending or breaking their own censorship rules for "The Passion of the Christ,'' the Mel Gibson film that sparked fears of anti-Semitism when it was released in the West.

In Egypt, where the film opened to large crowds Wednesday, "it's getting a very special treatment," said Mustafa Darwish, a film critic and former president of the Egypt Censorship Authority.

So far, the film has been released uncensored in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

[...]

However, Darwish and other observers say allegations raised by U.S. Jewish groups may have actually encouraged the film's welcome in the Arab world.

"They (the censorship authorities) think the film is anti-Semitic. That's why they are giving it such privilege," Darwish said.

[...]

"I encouraged the movie because it withholds from Jews their claims that they are innocent of the Christ's blood," said Mohiy el-Din Abdel Aleem, a professor of media and journalism at Al Azhar University, when asked why Al Azhar had not objected to the movie.

[...]

Moviegoers in Cairo left the film with widely differing views.

"This shows what happened, and how the Jews trapped Jesus and let the Romans crucify him. This is the truth," said Maher Nissim, a financial manager who viewed it on opening night at the Ramses Hilton theater.

Salwa el-Badrawi, a stooped elderly woman in an Islamic headscarf who attended a pre-release screening, said she hoped the movie would bring religions closer together rather than drive a wedge between them.

"It shows that there is tolerance and tenderness in all religions," she said. "The movie shows Jews who sympathized with the Christ, while we Muslims also had a Christian person who helped the prophet Mohammed," referring to Waraqah, his wife's Christian cousin, who helped Mohammed interpret his revelations.

I hope there are a lot more people like Salwa el-Badrawi

Mark Goodacre and Rebecca Lesses have also noted the article.

MORE ON THE KETEF HINNOM SILVER AMULETS: An earlier post quoted the following:

Barkay published a book about the find in 1986, but recent advances in computer technology have helped researchers discover additional verses on the silver scrolls. The new research technique revealed that the scroll contains other verses from the Pentateuch. Barkay has written a manuscript about these other finds and plans to publish it in the near future.

My emphasis. According to Yigal Levin on the ANE list, who gets it from Barkay himself, the additional verse (he only mentions one) is Deuternomy 7:9.

(Heads-up Carla Sulzbach.)

MORE PANDERING to Jewish-Temple denial, this time by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In their article "Muslims barricaded in mosque, clash with Israeli police," which came out minutes ago, we find the following paragraph:

The compound is considered a key holy site by both Muslims and Jews. Jews call it the Temple Mount, and is the site where they believe biblical temples stood.

Rather than saying something neutral and accurate such as "and historians and archaeologists agree that biblical temples stood there," we are told that "Jews" (Nobody else? This is a religious belief, is it?) "believe" (Are we to assume that everyone else does not?) that this is where the temples stood. My comments on the similar Time Magazine article apply here as well.

Contrast the way the same information is presented in this A.P. article:

The mosque compound is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of biblical Jewish temples. The walled site is revered by Muslims and Jews and is one of the flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

MORE ON CODEX AMBROSIANUS B.21, MILAN. As promised, I'm posting a few images below. The source is Antonio Maria Ceriani, Translatio syra pescitto Veteris Testamenti: ex codice Ambrosiano sec. fere VI, photolithographice edita, curante et adnotante (Milan, 1876). The manuscript is in western (sorry, should be Estrangela) Syriac script and was written in the sixth or seventh century C.E. It contains the Old Testament books, the Apocrypha, and other works such as 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 3-4 Maccabees and a section from Josephus on the Maccabees. The main thing I needed was the Latin preface, but I also took images of a number of the manuscript pages in the facsimile. The resolution could be better, but this was just a quick first try. Click on each image for a larger version.



This is the first page of 2 Baruch.



This is a closeup of the same page. 2 Baruch begins at the top of the middle column. It opens "The Book of the Revelation of Baruch son of Neriah, which is taken from Greek into Syriac."



This is the opening page of the Book of Judith, which begins at the top of the middle column.

ARAMAIC WATCH: The Salt Lake City Tribune has a piece on the BYU/Vatican Syriac manuscript digitalization project:

BYU scholars mine a Vatican bonanza

No new information, but the article does have this cool image:

Most of the manuscripts imaged by BYU scholars are from a collection that the Vatican purchased in the 18th century.

Note also that I have updated the previous post on this project with more information on the contents of the manuscripts.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Eastern Temple Mount wall may collapse (Jerusalem Post)
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in danger of immediate collapse because of damage caused by the February 11 earthquake, a classified government report issued this week concludes.

The report, written by the Israel Antiquities Authority, has been distributed to senior ministers by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military attache, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Galant, officials said Thursday.

The classified report, details of which were first published in Yediot Aharonot, says that the earthquake damaged the eastern wall of the Temple Mount to such an extent that sections of the wall are liable to cave in on the underground architectural support of the mount, known as Solomon's Stables.

[...]

ANOTHER DISTORTED QUOTE OF MEL GIBSON, this one from Michael Lerner. Actually it's a blatant misquote that attempts to make Gibson look anti-Semitic. Mark Goodacre has the goods. When are journalists going to clue in that people are checking up on them? And why aren't they making an issue of blatant real anti-Semitism? They are squandering their credibility.

HE'S BACK! Stephen C. Carlson's blog Hypotyposeis has been offline for the last week or so, due to an interest spike that led his service provider, Earthlink, to cut off his service for overuse. Sounds like their handling of the situation was pretty clueless. Stephen is planning to move elsewhere and promises more blogging soon. He also reports that he'll be seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ this weekend. I look forward to his comments on it.

Now, Blogspot isn't perfect, but they don't pull the sort of nonsense Stephen was subjected to. Looks like Earthlink has just advertised that you should look elsewhere for good service.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Broken stones from Western Wall cleared at plaza (Ha'aretz via Bible and Interpretation News)

By Nadav Shragai

Following an extensive study of Jewish law rulings sponsored by Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz, stone pieces that had detached from the wall were cleared away from the Old City of Jerusalem area yesterday.

A crane brought to the area by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation was used to clear away the stone rubble, which broke away from the wall in past months.

[...]

Stone fragments that fell from the Western Wall have in the past been cleared away, but in recent months it has become clear that these were not isolated incidents, but rather part of an ongoing problem. Some areas of the wall which appeared months ago to be solid have subsequently played host to erosion and crevices. Due to concerns about this trend, the Antiquities Authority carried out an engineering survey at the wall.

[...]

ARAMAIC WATCH: BYU is publishing a CD of 14,000 pages of Syriac manuscripts from the Vatican museum.

Vatican lets BYU publish old texts

By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News

PROVO � When their boat capsized in the Nile River, the Vatican monks feverishly dived for the priceless manuscripts they had just obtained from an Egyptian monastery.
Image
Most of the Syriac Christian documents copied by BYU are from a collection the Vatican purchased nearly 300 years ago.

Brigham Young University
One monk died in the accident, but the treasured writings of Ephrem the poet � copied by Assyrian monks in A.D. 522 and 523 � were saved and laid on the shore to dry in the early 18th century sun.
From there, the manuscripts traveled to the bowels of the Vatican Library and nearly 300 years of exile, out of reach of members of the Eastern Christian churches who revere Ephrem � until the Vatican agreed to let teams from Brigham Young University scan 14,000 pages of Syriac Christian writings and publish the color images next month on a DVD.
The texts provide a new window for study of Mesopotamian Christianity, which began when missionaries from Jerusalem or Antioch visited what is now Iraq and converted large numbers of people who spoke Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic.

[...]

There's also a press release published on the Hugoye list. Excerpts:

A collection of rare Christian manuscripts�some dating to the sixth century�will soon be accessible to scholars worldwide, thanks to a first-time collaboration between Brigham Young University, the Vatican Library and the Assyrian Church of the East.

Working alongside their Vatican colleagues for three years, BYU scholars imaged more than 14,000 pages of text to produce a digital library of 33 important Syriac Christian manuscripts, which will be available on DVD. For Bishop Mar Bawai Soro of the Assyrian Church of the East, access to these texts�which for centuries were out of reach�will help his church members to reconnect with their heritage.

[...]

The newly digitized collection includes unpublished works by early Eastern Christian writers such as Jacob of Serugh, Ephrem the poet and Isaac the Syrian. The Chronicle of Edessa, for example, describes life in the city of Edessa beginning in the second century. One oversized 1,000-page manuscript contained 230 separate homilies by different authors.

[...]

It's not clear to me whether these are hitherto unpublished works or just unplublished manuscripts of works already known. I'll try to find out.

Here's another note in Deseret News on a Syriac hymn in the corpus.

Coincidentally, I am off to our library later this morning to photograph some pages from a nineteenth century facsimile edition of a major Syriac biblical manuscript (Codex Ambrosianus B.21, Milan). Not as exciting as the BYU project, but it's the best I can do at the moment.

LATER: I'm back from my first little photographic expedition. The downloading software is on my other computer at home, so I won't be able to get at the images until tonight. If they came out well, I'll post one or two, probably tomorrow. [UPDATE (2 April): Now see here.]

UPDATE (2 April): On the Hugoye list Kristian Heal clarifies the contents of the digitized manuscripts:

All of these manuscripts are known from the catalogues of Assemani, Mai and Lantschoot. Many of the manuscripts have been published, some in critical editions (e.g. all of the Ephrem manuscripts (110, 111, 112, 113), and the Severus manuscripts (140,141)). However, some of the manuscripts contain texts which have not been published before in any format. For example, none of the liturgical texts have been published, though Borgia 60 is the object of a very interesting study by Joseph Marie Sauget (Studi e Testi 326). Among the literary texts included in the manuscripts many have not been published or used in critical editions. These include texts from Vatican Syriac 586, 283, 191, 189 and parts of 92, 93, 114, 117, 147, 151, 161, 252. Of note is Vatican Syriac 117, a collection of homilies by Jacob of Serugh, Isaac of Antioch and Ephrem. Of the 227 individual pieces that are included in the manuscript 60 have not been edited and published before. Of course, in most cases these manuscripts contain just one of a number of surviving witnesses.

It would perhaps be useful to identify a continuum by which to grade our awareness and use of a given manuscript/work:

1. Previously uncataloged/unknown
2. Cataloged manuscript
3. Published in facsimile
4. Users edition (e.g. those of Bedjan) that does not take full account
of all known manuscripts
5. Critical edition that takes into account all known manuscripts

With this publication all of the manuscripts have reached level 3. Many individual works had previously reached 4 or 5, though many have not.

Kristian also has a listing of catalogue numbers and short titles on this Hugoye post. I am grateful for the additional information. This is an exciting project and both BYU and the Vatican are to be commended for it. For more, see here.

A TIMELY PIECE FROM BELIEFNET:

The Cleansing of the Temple'
Beliefnet's exclusive excerpts from the script for the next Mel Gibson movie
Responding to criticism that "The Passion of the Christ" did not deal enough with Jesus' ministry, Mel Gibson has apparently decided to follow up the blockbuster with another movie, this one focused on Jesus' teachings. Though the project has been kept highly confidential because of the controversial nature of his previous film, Beliefnet was able to obtain a copy of a script treatment guiding this "prequel."

Be sure to read the second page.

INDIANA JONES IV UPDATE:

Indy 4 Acquires Pirates Writer (FilmForce)

Lucas and Spielberg commission a new script.

March 30, 2004 - As previously reported, the Indiana Jones IV script developed by Frank Darabont has been declined by those two bearded film moguls, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Apparently, the prospective screenplay didn't measure up to what the filmmakers had in mind, despite lengthy collaboration over the story.

According to Moviehole, a new writer has been brought on to re-write the screenplay. That writer is Stuart Beattie, an Australian who is relatively new to the industry. Beattie helped to write the screen story for last summer's blockbuster hit Pirates of the Caribbean, and it was apparently on that merit that he got the Indy gig.

[...]

A number of actors from the earlier Indy movies are on board for this one. Follow the link for details and for links to additional articles.

PETRA ONLINE: Here's a children's exhibition on The Ancient City of Petra. It includes a virtual recreation of the site with links to photos of and commentary on architecture and artifacts. It's produced by the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was mentioned in the New York Times article "Surprise! Education Sites Are Cool."

JESUS VS. THE ZOMBIES. Jesus wins, of course.

PURDUE PANEL FOLLOW-UP. My thanks to Liz Bower, whether or not she saw my posting yesterday, for letting us know how the panel discussion on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ went. Excepts:

The Rev. John Pawlilowski, professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, received a copy of the shooting script before the film was released. He and eight other scholars examined the script and gave Gibson a private report.

[...]

"Ninety percent of the issues that were raised in our report were not changed in the movie; however, there were one or two things that were changed," he said.

[...]

Gordon Mork, professor of modern German history, said Gibson believed that he followed the gospel in the script. However, Mork noted that there was lack of consistency between the gospel and the film.

"Although Gibson claimed he followed the Bible, the film was based on visions (had by a nun)," he said.

Gordon Young, associate professor of ancient near-Eastern and Mediterranean history and director of the Jewish studies program, agrees with Mork.

[...]

Bob Bloom, film critic at the Journal and Courier, said, "In a sense, I admire Gibson as a film maker because he did not buckle under public pressure and the bottom line is it is a movie none of us were there and this is a good piece of film."

A SHORT HISTORY of Christian anti-Semitism, courtesy of Bible and Interpretation:

An Unacknowledged Passion

��� While most Christians are familiar with the stories in the Gospels of Jesus� arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion, they are less familiar with how those same stories have been used throughout history to justify not only anti-Jewish sentiment but, at times, violent persecution of Jews.

� By Mark A. Chancey
Department of Religious Studies
Southern Methodist University
March 2004

This piece places Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ into the context of Christian anti-Semitism over the last two millennia, not accusing it of being anti-Semitic, but explaining why some Jews have been so concerned about it. The essay covers a lot of historical territory I know little about, but the areas I do know about look to be covered accurately. Do go and read it all. The conclusion reads:

��� If some people can read The DaVinci Code and then believe that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, it requires no stretch of the imagination to think that at least a few viewers will believe Gibson�s movie is an accurate portrayal of events. They will see Gibson�s whitewashing of Pilate and his vilification of the Jews, points on which the movie goes well beyond what we find in the Gospels, and walk out thinking about how vicious �those Jews� were. The anti-Semitic slur �Christ-killer,� though repeated less frequently now than in decades past, is still heard. The minority of viewers who already harbor anti-Semitic feelings may well walk away feeling validated, having just witnessed �the Jews� kill Jesus on the movie screen. Those who still hold to the view that all Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus, and the view does still circulate in some sectors of American Christianity; will find nothing but confirmation of that belief in this movie.

��� Even more troubling is the possibility that the movie will fuel anti-Semitism in some areas abroad. Gibson, as is well known, deleted the subtitles for Matthew 27:25, �His blood be on us and our children.� The sentence is still present in the Aramaic, however, and it is entirely possible that it will be translated when the movie circulates in other areas. Anti-Semitism appears to be on the rise globally, and there are definitely audiences who will interpret Gibson�s film, however well intentioned it is, in the worst light possible, a minority of audiences, to be sure, but audiences nonetheless. In a world where even the atrocious and absurd blood libel charge still circulates, there is reason to be concerned about the ripple effects of this movie.

��� None of this means that Christians should not go to the movie or that it is wrong to be moved by it or that the spiritual experiences it has prompted are invalid or inappropriate. It does mean, however, that rather than belittling Jewish concerns and demonizing the film�s critics (Jewish, Christian, and other), we should perhaps listen. Gibson�s movie provides Christians with an opportunity to reflect on the depths of the suffering of Jesus, but it also provides us all with an opportunity to reflect on the unfortunate role the passion narratives have played in Jewish-Christian relations.

A quick check of Google will show you that there are many anti-Semitic websites on the Internet spewing all sorts of vicious and false vitriol (some of it is summarized in this Al Jazeerah article). And some early reactions to the movie from the U.A.E. and Kuwait are profoundly disturbing.

Mark Goodacre promises some comments on the piece as well. (Later: he has now posted comments at the same link.)

PRELIMINARY EXCAVATION REPORT and call for volunteers for the 2004 season (Bible and Interpretation):

Excavations at Abila of the Decapolis, Northern Jordan

By W. Harold Mare, Ph.D.
Director, Abila Excavations
Professor, Covenant Theological Seminary
St. Louis, Missouri
March 2004

��� Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis (Mark 7:31).

Excerpt:

�� Though the existence and significance of the Decapolis region is well attested, the nature of this group of cities is largely unknown. Was it some kind of a confederation tied together by political, military, economic, social, and religious bonds or some combination thereof? Certainty on this is not possible. What we do know for sure is that by the time of the Roman conquest in 64/63 B.C. the Decapolis cities constituted a distinct unity as far as their geographical area was concerned. And by New Testament times this region seems to have been flourishing, as evidenced by the references to the group (but not to individual cities within the group) in the Gospels (that is, specifically Matthew 4:25, Mark 5:20, and Mark 7:31)

History Waiting to be Uncovered

��� In the light of the literary and archaeological history of Abila and the other cities of the Decapolis region�a history that covers the pre-Old Testament, Old Testament, New Testament, Early Church, and Islamic periods�continued excavation in this region is essential for a fuller understanding of these cities and the roles they played in each of these periods.

��� We invite anyone with an interest in such an endeavor to join us for our Abila 2004 Excavation, set for June 19-August 7. Professors at colleges, universities, and seminaries, and other professionals with expertise in excavation, geology, anthropology, architecture, mosaics, etc.; student volunteers, both graduate and undergraduate; and interested, dedicated lay people from all walks of life have a wonderful opportunity to work side by side with such renowned scholars as Dr. David Chapman, Covenant Seminary; Dr. Jack Lee, St. John Fisher College; Dr. Reuben Bullard, University of Cincinnati; Dr. Robert Smith, Roanoke Bible College; Dr. Susan Ellis, Wayne State College; and many others in helping to uncover more of the fascinating history of this important Bible lands city.

Full details and contact information are given in the essay.

CONTROVERSY IN KUWAIT over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

The Sunnis dismiss the film while the Shiites wish to show it. The authorities, meanwhile, have not decided either way.

The dean of the local Islamic college, Mohammad al-Tabtabai, said in a fatwa, or religious edict, Monday that parts of the controversial movie contradict the Muslim faith, in addition to its depiction of Jesus.

Tabtabai went so far as to outlaw the film's screening by any Muslim country and prohibited Muslims from watching it, saying anyone who has seen the movie must "repent".

But the emirate's leading Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Muhri said there was nothing wrong in showing the film and called on the authorities to approve it.

"It's a good opportunity to reveal the crimes committed by Jews against the Christ and many other (religious) prophets," Muhri told AFP.

"We sincerely respect the Jewish religion and Jews, but not the Jewish Zionists, and we believe in Jesus and Moses like we believe in our own prophet," he added.

My emphasis. What exactly the qualification about Jewish Zionists has to do with anything is beyond me. Does Ayatollah Muhri think that Caiaphas was a Zionist and Jesus and his disciples weren't? Zionism wasn't a category in the first century. This is anti-Semitism, pure and simple; it has nothing to do with disagreeing with Zionism.

A VIRTUAL TEMPLE? Israeli "cybernetics expert" Yitzhaq Hayutman has a new solution for peace on the Temple Mount:

All sides acknowledge that tensions on the hill have the potential to start a war, but Hayutman believes he has found a way to resolve the intractable conflict. "What most people see is that if the Muslims are here, surely there is no temple," Hayutman says. "They do not understand that technology has given us the tools to realize the prophecy right now."

He has two big ideas, two ways to engineer the apocalypse. The first: a hovering holographic temple. Hayutman wants to set up an array of high-powered, water-cooled lasers and fire them into a transparent cube suspended beneath a blimp. The ephemeral, flickering image, he says, would fulfill an ancient, widely revered Jewish prophecy that the temple will descend from the heavens as a manifestation of light. Hayutman hopes to finance the project with some of the proceeds from a $20 million patent-infringement suit he and his partners have filed against Palm.

The rest of that money would be poured into Hayutman's second idea for jump-starting the end-times: a virtual temple within a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The goal is for thousands of people to join in its construction on the Web. Hayutman even wants to display progress reports in the floating hologram as a kind of apocalyptic scoreboard.

Whether it's a hologram or a cyberstructure, Hayutman believes that a techno temple does away with the need for a physical building. Under his scheme, Jews and Christians would get a biblically accurate temple without razing the Dome of the Rock. A description of his plans is on the floppy disk in his pocket, which he says he will give to me when we leave the Mount.

This obviously belongs in the "you couldn't make this up" file, but unlike many entries it doesn't seem actively harmful. It's not going to satisfy those with extreme views on either side, though.

This solution isn't entirely novel. The Qumran sectarians, at least some of whom rejected the second temple because they thought the priesthood was corrupt, seem to have adopted the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice because it tied angelic worship in the heavenly temple to a liturgy on earth which, presumably, the sectarians could and did practice and which gave them a "virtual" experience. Mr. Hayutman just has better technology.

ANOTHER ACADEMIC PANEL on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ will be held this evening at Purdue University:

The director of the Jewish studies program knew in September that Mel Gibson�s film "The Passion of the Christ" was going to be a controversial topic.

Gordon Young, along with five other experts, will analyze some of the key issues that are raised in the film at 7:30 p.m. today in Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, Room 224.

[...]

Bob Bloom, film critic for the Journal and Courier, will be the moderator for the lecture. Zev Garber, professor of Jewish studies and philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College; Gordon Mork, professor of history; John Pawlikowski, professor of ethics and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; Stuart Robertson, pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church and lecturer in biblical Hebrew and literatures; and Young, associate professor of ancient near eastern and Mediterranean history will present their lectures.

[...]

I wish that the local coverage of such events would include a summary article afterwards. This doesn't seem to happen very often and some of us would like to know what was said. Exponent reporters please take note.

MICHAEL SATLOW'S Jewish Marriage in Antiquity is reviewed by Steven Fine in the Jewish Studies Newsletter (scroll down to bottom). Excerpts:

Michael Satlow begins this hefty volume with the assertion that his title "is deliberately misleading." Satlow believes that his title misleads in its seeming concrete use of such terms as "Jewish," "marriage" and "Jewish marriage." Our author notes that this terminology is far more ambiguous than his title might suggest. He is certainly right. A book called "Rabbinic Perceptions of Jewish Marriage within their Literary and Greco-Roman Contexts" (or something like that) would, however, be far more clumsy-and sell far fewer books. Satlow's goal was not to provide a stodgy academic volume, however, but rather to have an effect upon the broader
culture. Satlow wants to show that "a scholarly study of the past [can] contribute to burning contemporary societal issues" (p. xiii). By showing how "Jewish groups in antiquity understood marriage, how they practiced it, and how they reconciled the messy realities of marriage with their ideals" (p. xvi) Satlow hopes to provide a more ambiguous model of marriage from the past to contemporary readers (particularly Jews).

[...]

Satlow's fundamental insight in this volume is that "there is nothing
essentially Jewish about Jewish" marriage in antiquity. He concludes that there "was no 'essence' of Jewish marriage, no single quality that must have been present for a marriage to be termed Jewish" (p. xvi). This conclusion is not surprising. Jews have always adapted to the times and places where they live. What is interesting about Satlow's book is that it carefully traces the early history of Jewish marriage from the Second Temple period up through the Rabbinic community. This was the formative period of Jewish marriage as we know it.

[...]

In reading through _Jewish Marriage in Antiquity_, I sense a tension between the author's desire to reach both a scholarly and a lay audience. The notes, by his own admission, are not complete, while at the same time, the well-written discussion is often far too technical for all but the most intrepid non-specialist. Still, as a scholar who esteems good writing, this book was a pleasure to read. Satlow's _Jewish Marriage in Antiquity_ is an important study of marriage within the Rabbinic communities of late antiquity. I highly recommend it.

WAS JESUS A REAL PERSON? According to Tom Harpur in The Pagan Christ (not listed by Amazon), the answer is no. See this Toronto Star review:

Tom Harpur would reject, outright, the philosophy behind the new Mel Gibson movie The Passion Of The Christ.

Gibson, the conservative Catholic movie director portrays the life of Christ literally from scripture and reads the Gospel narrative as actual history.

Harpur would find that indefensible.

He would also differ from many modern theologians such as Jesus Seminar members John Spong and Marcus Borg, who believe there was an actual Jesus of history.

[...]

Harpur, formerly the religion editor of the Toronto Star and author of many books on faith subjects, believes that originally there was one primal, central myth that emerged "undoubtedly" in Egypt. All the other ancient sacred stories flow from there.

[...]

Three virtually unknown authorities used by Harpur are Godfrey Higgins (1771-1834), an early English mythologist who, through groundbreaking studies of ancient writings, sought freedom from the exclusivism and dogmatism of Christianity; Gerald Massey (1828-1907), an American who studied Egyptian mythology and there discovered antecedents to images and themes appearing in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; and Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1880-1963), another American, who pursued extensive academic research into the origins of religious symbols and meanings. His work, though esoteric to untrained eyes, convinced Harpur of the validity of Egyptian sources for much of what appears in the Christian scriptures.

Basing his ideas on these men, Harpur goes to great lengths to promote Horus (the son of Isis or Osiris) transforming him into Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. Horus, who receives but a paragraph of mention in the respected New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1968), becomes, for Harpur, the metaphorical and allegorical truth behind the person of Jesus.

Because of his research into ancient myth, Harpur feels he has undergone a spiritual re-awakening that has revolutionized his Christian faith. Because of its links to the great archetypal themes of primal and classic spirituality, the Bible has assumed new potency and vitality for him. Harpur believes he now possesses an awareness of the cosmic Christ he has so long sought.

Now far be it from me to dispute with Harpur about whether he's found an awareness of the cosmic Christ. But his ideas about the earthly Jesus aren't very persuasive and his enthusiastic use of nineteenth century sources to make his case doesn't enhance its credibility. The evidence for Jesus as an actual person who walked the earth in the early first century C.E. is very solid: not just the four Gospels, written within a generation or two of his lifetime, but also the letters of Paul and references in Josephus (one of which is, granted, problematic, but the other isn't) and Tacitus. I know of no living specialist in the historical Jesus who thinks Jesus didn't exist at all. Whether we can know much about what Jesus did or taught is quite another matter and I myself am pretty skeptical.

You can find Tom Harpur's website here. He seems to be really into spirituality, which is fine, but if he's going to talk about historical matters he needs to pay some attention to what historical-Jesus specialists have done in the last century and not try to reinvent the wheel.

ELDER AVRAHAM BRONSTEIN of Protocols reviews Rabbi Aaron Glatt's Women in the Talmud in Jewsweek:

The Talmud vs. Tiffany
A new book called Women in the Talmud leaves our reviewer with a warm and fuzzy feeling. But is that what the author intended?

ON COLUMNIST CORRECTIONS in the New York Times (further to my comments on journalistic corrections in my anniversary post): Daniel Okrent, the public editor of the Times has a column on the subject today (via InstaPundit). Excerpts:

For the news pages, the rule is succinct. "Because its voice is loud and far-reaching," the paper's stylebook says, "The Times recognizes an ethical responsibility to correct all its factual errors, large and small (even misspellings of names), promptly and in a prominent reserved space in the paper." But on the page where The Times's seven Op-Ed columnists roam, there has long been no rule at all, or at least not one clearly elucidated and publicly promulgated. When I began in this job last fall, I was told The Times considered the space granted Op-Ed columnists theirs to use as they wish, subject only to the limits of legality, decency and publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.'s patience. Columnists decided when to run corrections, and where in their columns to run them.

But several days ago, editorial page editor Gail Collins handed me a memo in response to my inquiries. (You can read it in its entirety at www.nytimes.com/danielokrent; look for posting No. 22.) Less a formal statute than an explanation and justification of practice, the document lays out the position of both Collins and her boss, Sulzberger, who bears ultimate responsibility for hiring and firing columnists. Collins explains why columnists must be allowed the freedom of their opinions, but insists that they "are obviously required to be factually accurate. If one of them makes an error, he or she is expected to promptly correct it in the column." Corrections, under this new rule, are to be placed at the end of a subsequent column, "to maximize the chance that they will be seen by all their readers, everywhere," a reference to the wide syndication many of the columnists enjoy.

[...]

Anyone who calls the Internet's bustling trade in columnist-attack a cottage industry might more accurately liken it to the arms bazaar in Peshawar. Peace and calm were not enhanced a few weeks ago when Times lawyers took a legal sledgehammer to an imaginary Op-Ed corrections column published by Robert Cox of the Web site The National Debate - but peace and calm rarely accompany arguments about political opinion in a polarized age.

[...]

In the coming months I expect columnist corrections to become a little more frequent and a lot more forthright than they've been in the past. Yet the final measure of Collins's success, and of the individual columnists, will be not in the corrections but in the absence of the need for them. Wayne Wren of Houston, a self-described conservative and "avid reader" of National Review Online, expressed it with great equanimity in a recent e-mail message to my office: "If Mr. Krugman is making egregious errors in his Op-Ed column, they will catch up with him." Same goes for Brooks, Dowd, Friedman, Herbert, Kristof and Safire - and, most important, for The New York Times.

You can find the memo here. This sounds like an improvement, although I still think it would be a good idea to put the correction (or at least a link to it) at the bottom of the original column when it's online. As I said before, Okrent is doing a good job. More power to him.

A VISIT TO BABYLON by a Miami Herald reporter:

4,000 years later, Babylon still magical

BY TODD PITOCK

Special to The Herald

BAGHDAD - The word Babylon had a magical ring, and from Baghdad, fifty miles to the north, I could hear its toll beckoning.

My interpreter, Wada, arranged a driver to take us for the day for $50. The going rate for drivers was from $3 to $15, but Wada (wa-DAH) felt for his country's suffering masses and was on his own wealth redistribution campaign.

[...]

Past the Poles, the base spread in all directions. On a hill in the distance stands one of Saddam's many gauche palaces, which like most of the others, is now used by Coalition forces. Below the palace are the ruins, which you enter through a courtyard where a troupe of guides waits for visitors. Generally, it's not the best of times for Iraqi tourism, but with all the multinational soldiers, the guides have business. Mine was Hadi, a bespectacled archaeologist whose English was almost as incomprehensible as the ancient clay tablets with wedge-shaped writing scattered all over the site.

''The Gate of Ishtar!'' he announced. The gate is a 1980s replica -- the real one is in Berlin -- but, then, much of the place looks pretty Disney, only with real mice. Tall, yellow brick walls frame each of the rebuilt sections, and arched doorways opened onto freshly paved alleys and empty, echoing courtyards.

It was Saddam's idea to rebuild the ruins; deaf to the howls of UNESCO and archaeologists, in 1987 he committed $100 million to the project. The ancient bricks bore the inscription, ``I am Nebuchadnezzar II, the son of Nabopolassar. The god Marduk [Babylon's most revered god] ordered me to build this palace for his excellency.''

The new bricks say, ''Rebuilt in the age of Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, the protector of civilizations, the descendant of Nebuchadnezzar.'' Saddam's effort to link himself with the ancient king was more propagandistic than delusional: The latter ruled a 1,000-mile empire that stretched all the way to the Mediterranean. And he had, of course, liberated Jerusalem from the Jews -- a message that his Arab audience, which tends to have a fresh memory of ancient history, would easily understand.

[...]

They constructed ziggurats, immense towers as platforms for their temples. The greatest of these ziggurats was a 300-foot structure called Etemenanki, ''the foundation of heaven and earth.'' Although there's little archaeological evidence -- the place marked as site itself is a just a pit in the ground -- some researchers suppose that this was the structure that the bedazzled and comparatively primitive Jews called the Tower of Babel.

''For the captives who were brought here from Jerusalem, it must have been like going from Des Moines to New York City,'' says Erle Leichty, curator emeritus of the Babylonian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (see sidebar).

It was probably not coincidental that the Jews wrote the Babylonian Talmud here. Babylonian legal codes started in 2100 BCE.

[...]

IN DEFENSE OF THE PHARISEES:

Scholar says Pharisees got a 'bum rap' (Staten Island Advance)
Jesus shared a great deal in common with the Pharisees, including his teaching style and belief in an afterlife
Saturday, March 27, 2004
By HEATHER WECSLER
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

[...]

Still, the view of Pharisees and their Jewish followers as Christ-killers has helped perpetuate nearly 2,000 years of anti-Semitism. As Easter approaches, many Christians will reflect on Jesus' ministry and sacrifice. This might be a good time to rethink the Pharisees' image as the conniving bad guys of the New Testament.

In truth, the Pharisees get "a bum rap," says Thomas Smith, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans and an early church historian.

PRECEDED THE RABBIS

"The Pharisees," he said, "were a major component of the 'glue' that held Judaism together after ... the destruction of the Temple" (in A.D. 70). Indeed, the Pharisees were the predecessors of the modern rabbis.

They were in the lineage of scribes who first came to prominence at the end of the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., Smith said. They focused on careful interpretation of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and in finding ways to make it applicable to everyday life.

By Jesus' day, the Pharisees had introduced two concepts into Jewish thinking, said Rabbi David Kline of Temple B'nai Israel, a Reform synagogue in Monroe, La. Kline also teaches biblical studies at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

The first was an oral tradition to complement the Torah. This tradition would ultimately form the foundation of the Talmud, a multi-volume Jewish sacred text. The second idea was even more revolutionary -- a belief in an afterlife.

The Pharisees didn't introduce the idea of an afterlife � this is an old concept even if it wasn't very important in ancient Israel - but they did help to popularize it.

[The Rev. Pat] Madden said the Pharisees enjoyed argument, and it's quite conceivable they would have debated at length with Jesus over interpretations of the law.

But he suggested that the Gospels used the Pharisees mostly as foils for Jesus, narrative devices to provide a counterpoint to his teachings.

Amy-Jill Levine, a professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., agrees.

"For a modern, albeit inexact, analogy: The New Testament's depiction of Pharisees is much like the depiction of very liberal Democrats by very conservative Republicans, or vice versa," she said. "Some Pharisees were hypocrites, as, of course, were some Christians; others were not."

The rest of the article looks pretty good, although I don't think that Jesus himself being a Pharisee is a realistic possibility.

JAB'EDINE - another Aramaic-speaking village in Syria:

The language of Christ awaits resurrection (Financial Times)
By Kim Ghattas
Published: March 27 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: March 27 2004 4:00

Khaled Ahmad Alloush and Mohammed Qassem Tawil are anxiously waiting to hear whether there will be a special screening of Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ, in their isolated village of Jab'edine, perched in the hills north of Damascus.
Advertisement

The two farmers are among the few thousand people who will not need subtitles to understand the language spoken throughout the movie, Aramaic.

Mostly considered a dead language, Aramaic, which was once spoken all over the Middle East, is still alive in three Syrian villages, Jab'edine, Bakh'aa and Maaloula. Even young children play and tease each other in Aramaic.

[...]

It is unclear why Aramaic survived in this particular region but the most common explanation is the villages' isolation, which preserved them from the spread of Arabic.

For the Christians of Maaloula, Aramaic has an added significance. Ten years ago, villagers celebrated Good Friday mass in Aramaic for the first time in centuries. Everything from the sermon to the hymns was translated.

This was made possible by one man, George Rizkallah, Maaloula's Aramaic expert. He has been working hard to promote the language and develop it beyond simple, everyday, Aramaic.

[...]

THE ANCIENT TREASURES AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION has dramatically raised attendance at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.

From the time the exhibit opened in December, until March 21, 334,670 people visited the museum. In December, January and February, attendance has been about 20 per cent higher than the record.

One of the silver amulets from Ketef Hinnom is on display in the exhibition.

NO, STEVEN SPIELBERG is not making a movie about the Crusades in order to spite Mel Gibson, despite a report that has been circulating on the Internet. The story is refuted in this Toronto Star piece: "Passion play."

Shockingly, the spam lied. Spielberg's people came out last week denouncing and denying. (The urban legend clearinghouse snopes.com has a solid account of the drama.) Indiana Jones fans � eager for a fourth instalment � breathe a collective sigh of relief. The director insists that show will go on.

Then there's this:

Turns out, however, a Crusades film, Kingdom Of Heaven, is already in production in Morocco and Spain � helmed by Gladiator director Ridley Scott.

Great. Richard the Lionheart meets the Alien.

JACOB NEUSNER OFFERS "A Judaic Reading of the Passion Narratives for Mel Gibson to Consider" (at the Bible and Interpretation website). It concludes:

� In the Halakhic context, the death penalty achieves atonement of sin, leading to the resurrection at the end of days. It is an act of mercy, atoning for the sin that otherwise traps the sinner/criminal in death. In the context of the Gospel narrative, with its stress on repentance at the end and atonement on the cross by a single unique man, representative of all of humanity, for the sins of all humanity, we deal with no juridical transaction at all. It is an eschatological realization of the resurrection of humanity through that of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Read in light of Mishnah-tractate Sanhedrin and its Halakhic theology with its climax, "All Israel has a portion in the world to come," the passion narrative coheres, each component in its right proportion and position, all details fitting together.

��� The Mishnah interprets the death penalty as a medium of atonement in preparation for judgment leading to resurrection, just as the theology of the passion narratives has always maintained. For both the Mishnah and the Gospels, the death penalty is a means to an end. It does not mark the end but the beginning. The trial and crucifixion of Christ for Christianity, like the trial and execution of the Israelite criminal or sinner for Judaism, form necessary steps toward the redemption of humanity from death, as both religions have maintained, each in its own idiom.

��� Indeed, in the context of the law as articulated in the Mishnah, the details of the passion narratives take on acute meaning. All that requires translation is Christ for the criminal, and the passion narrative covers that ground in the context of the larger theology of atonement. A truly Christian film of the passion narratives begins with a prologue of suffering on the cross, giving way to a luminous, truly sublime vision of resurrection in all its glory. The climax comes not on Friday but on Sunday.

THE BEIT SHEAN ARSON: Ha'aretz (via Bible and Interpretation News) has a very long and informative article on what happened and what was lost. Excerpts:

Up in smoke
By Avihai Becker
When a fire swept through an antiquities warehouse near the Beit Shean archaeological site earlier this month, thousands of artifacts were destroyed. Now it is clear the fire was set deliberately, but no one knows why.

It was apparently just another routine fire. Two weeks ago Wednesday, the Beit Shean firefighters were called to a structure next to the local mall that was engulfed in flames. The time was 7:57 P.M. Within two minutes, word of the fire reached the regional fire station in Afula as well. Two fire engines, a water tanker and a control car carrying veteran officer Avraham Tal rushed to the scene. When Tal arrived, he found that the basalt structure, 30 meters long, was burning from end to end and its ceiling was collapsing. Frantic onlookers told him that the structure was an antiquities warehouse.

[...]

"Eighteen years of excavations down the drain" was the title of the joint press release issued by the Antiquities Authority and the Nature and Parks Authority. Amos Sabag, commander of firefighting and rescue services in the Jezreel region, sent fire investigator Miki Cohen, who found "at least two separate fire centers, with no connection between one and the other," as he wrote in his report. "The main entrance door to the structure was broken into," he added, and the lock was found to be broken. "I did not find any signs of an electrical short or of materials that could spontaneously combust," Cohen wrote. "I used a machine to test for gas fumes, which detected a relatively sharp odor next to the two fire centers, indicating the use of a flammable substance." The conclusion was "premeditated arson." The Beit Shean police went into action.

[...]

"The Beit Shean national park is the most ambitious archeological project ever undertaken in Israel," explains Gabi Mazor of the Antiquities Authority, who directed the excavation project together with his colleagues from Hebrew University, professors Yoram Tzafrir and Gideon Foerster. His previous position in the Antiquities Authority was chief archaeologist for the northern district. A native Jerusalemite, after the army he settled on Kibbutz Revivim and became a teacher in the Ma'aleh Habesor regional school. Among other places, he has excavated in Halutza, Mamshit and Tel Dan. In the coming months, he will be working with an American group excavating at Omrit to uncover a temple whose construction is attributed to Herod. The work in Beit Shean is especially dear to him.

[...]

The only bit of consolation left is the realization that the damage could have been much greater. "Statues, coins, inscriptions, glass, artifacts of some significance and worthy of restoration were already sent to our labs in Jerusalem," says Mazor. "Everyone knew that in the warehouse there were no items of great financial value. The main worry, if there was one, was that they would steal columns and capitals - fantastic things that were scattered around. But they didn't touch those."

The motive, therefore, if not money, was simply a desire to wreak destruction. "I can't remember any other acts of vandalism and so I am genuinely surprised," says Mazor. "Valuable artifacts, the kind that are displayed to the public in the various museums, are not here. So what's the problem? The answer is that while the shards that were stored here weren't destined for museums, they were crucial for scientific research and for use in writing scientific articles. Luckily, I'd already finished processing most of the raw material I needed for a summary report on the excavation, which will be published starting next year. Unfortunately, this is not the situation for two other groups involved in the project. The direct damage done to their work is worse than it is to mine."

And that's not all. "A researcher - either tomorrow or 20 years from now - who wants to examine the validity of the publication and authenticate the data upon which the conclusions were based will need to have all the pottery available. Because of the fire, all this documentation is lost to us."

[...]

HERE'S A ROUND-UP of some of the responses so far to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in Arab countries:

The Passion of the Christ� a hit in Beirut, Damascus (Middle East Online)

[...]

"Some members of the audience could not conceal their astonishment on hearing some expressions - such as Ya Illah (My God) - that are close to Arabic," said [theater-goer Fayez] Wehbe.

Added another Syrian cinema-goer: "The fact that this film is being shown in the current Middle East context, which opposes Israel and the Arabs, explains part of its success."

[...]

Here in Beirut, the film has been warmly received. Lebanon's Maronite church has described it as "impressive" and found it not to be anti-Semitic.

[...]

Elsewhere in the Arab world, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat saw the film at his headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank and pronounced it "moving."

"The Passion of the Christ" will also be shown in Cairo, where it is likewise forbidden to minors because of its violent scenes, starting March 31, and has been available to movie goers in the Gulf state of Qatar since last Sunday.

[...]

IS THE IVORY POMEGRANATE A FORGERY?

Only existing First Temple relic may be forged

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

Investigators for the Israel Antiquities Authority have been informed that a precious Ivory Pomegranate, on display at the Israel Museum since 1988, is a forgery.

On the basis of an inscription it had been dated from the period of the First Temple, 10th century BCE. However, it is information on the origin of the inscription that has raised doubts about the authenticity of the item. The Antiquities Authority refused to reveal the origins and nature of the information it holds.

The inscription, completed by archaeologists, is translated as "Belonging to the Temp[le of Yahweh, holy to the priests." The expert who confirmed the authenticity of the inscription is Andre Lemaire, who also recently asserted the authenticity of the "James Ossuary" which had an inscription attributing reference to the brother of Jesus - which proved to have been a forgery.

The Ivory Pomegranate was bought in 1988 for $600,000 from a contribution made by a Swiss donor. The sum spent and the circumstances of the find resulted in severe criticism, rejected by the museum that argued that the find is unique.

[...]

ARAMAIC WATCH: The Syrian town of Maaloula is featured in yet another article.

Aramaic has gained new prominence with `Passion' movie

By Warren P. Strobel

Knight Ridder Newspapers

MA'ALOULA, Syria - Completing a tour of his 1,700-year-old church, with its ancient altar, precious icons and wooden beams that have stood for nearly two millennia, the Rev. Toufic Eid stopped, closed his eyes and recited the Lord's Prayer.

His handful of visitors speak English, Arabic, Italian and Norwegian. But the language Eid used for the prayer was Aramaic - the language of Christ.

"Abunah ti bishmo," he said. "Our Father who art in heaven."

Aramaic, long the preserve of scholars and theologians, is making something of a popular return, thanks to the hugely successful (and hugely controversial) Mel Gibson epic "The Passion of the Christ." Gibson's characters speak Aramaic and Latin on-screen.

But in Ma'aloula, a town of 5,000 tucked into the mountains about 35 miles northeast of Damascus, and in two other villages nearby, the locals have been speaking Aramaic for 25 centuries. They have preserved it in their rocky enclave as invasions, conquests and a long parade of cultures have come and gone.

[...]

But pockets survived in places such as Ma'aloula, where a dialect known as Western Aramaic is spoken, and in small Christian communities in Iraq, Turkey and Iran, where the dialect is known to scholars as Eastern Aramaic. The Chaldeans of Iraq, who have a large community in the Detroit area, use Aramaic as the language of the Bible, their prayers and their native villages, while using English or Arabic for everyday communication.

[...]

The man who translated the dialogue into Aramaic and Latin for "The Passion" is the Rev. William J. Fulco, a professor of ancient Mediterranean studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

[...]

Townspeople in Ma'aloula often speak Arabic in public, saving Aramaic for at home.

Eid, the superior at the Monastery of Saints Serge and Bacchus, said Syria's youngish president, Bashar Assad, has taken an interest in the issue. And the regional government recently decided to create an Institute of Aramaic in Ma'aloula and has purchased a parcel of land.

"It will survive because we still have people in Ma'aloula who speak the language - not because of academic effort," said Eid, who's from neighboring Lebanon. "If it becomes an academic language, it will die."

But others, including Fulco, say modern-day Aramaic is likely to die out in a few more decades, as globalization and international culture reach even the mountains of Syria.

[...]

JEWISH-TEMPLE DENIAL ALERT: In an article on the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Islam Online we find the following aside:

"Aqsa mosque appeals with you. Zionists have prepared themselves for demolishing it," he [Sheikh Yassin] wrote in his latter [sic].

Israel claims the Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, was built on the so-called Temple Mount, an allegation refuted by scores of historians.

I take it they're disputing that there was a Jewish Temple on the Mount, not that the Mosque was built there. It gets tiresome to have to keep repeating that the idea that there weren't Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount in antiquity is preposterous and is not accepted by any historian. But as long as people keep repeating the lie, I can keep repeating the truth. Follow some of the links at the beginning of this post for more.

ZOHAR TRANSLATION WATCH: The critically reconstructed Aramaic text that served as the basis for Daniel Matt's translation of the Zohar (for volumes 1-2, covering more than half of the Genesis commentary) is available online in PDF format for free downloading. Is that cool or what? There's also a brief introduction to the text-files by Matt. (Heads-up, reader Carl Kinbar.)

AL JAZEERAH is in top form with this one:

The Talmud, Racism, Hatred and Anti-Christism
By John Anast

Al-Jazeerah, March23 ,2004

The Talmud forms the religious training for Rabbis, observant and reformed Jews. Upon close examination is it clear that the Talmud not only supports racism and hatred, but is the source of hatred directed towards non-Jews.

American Christians need to reexamine their relationship with organized Jewry and insist that racist Talmudic teachings be removed from such offensive texts and that if necessary all Yeshiva's which teach and promote hatred and racism be closed in the United States and removed from US soil. Organized Jewry seems to feel that certain Islamic schools need to be addressed all over the world. It is therefore only fitting that Yeshiva's and its faculty and students in the United States be made to conform to the Christian doctrine of love and mutual respect.

It was Christ who pointed out that Phariseeism / Talmudism / Judaism is a religion based upon the instructions of men. Basically the Pharisee appointed themselves g-ds and taught and ruled as if they were man-g-ds. Several Talmudic passages which speak to this point are clearly found in Tractate Mechilla whereas, it says: " Yahweh Himself studies the Talmud standing, He has such respect for that book. " How blasphemous that any man or group of men would not only accept that nonsense but teach it to others in religious doctrine? In another tractate Mizbeach 13 Judaism teaches that " There is nothing superior to the Holy Talmud ". Who made the Talmud "holy"? Is it Torah or Law? In other words the Talmud is the Jewish law and like Zionism it has replaced Torah as the instruction book on how to live. I am sure that our Creator did not consult with any Rabbi or the Talmud before He created the universe. There is nothing superior to the Creator.

Not withstanding, the Talmudists place themselves not only above the Law but also disregard the Prophets of Yah as in Treatise Berachoth Judaism advises that " The words of the elders are better than the words of the prophets ". In contrast the New Testament which is made up mostly of Old Testament passages is a guide to the completion of the Law of our Creator. Christians believe Christ lived the Law in completion, without blemish, without flaw. I do not mean that Christ was a handsome fellow for certainly he was not. The basic tenant of Christianity is that our rescuer lived the Law and was without transgression therefore allowing His sacrifice to cover our transgressions. Christ was not a "revolutionary" or any other myriad of pejorative titles ascribed by men, he was and is a living example which example was and continues to be rejected by Judaism.

While the above are distinctions of religion and whereas reasonable men may differ in their opinions and beliefs the Talmud contains passages which are less academic and in fact form the basis of Talmudic hatred of all non-Jews. One of the most interesting passages in the Talmud is found in the book of Libbre David,37 , whereas, " To communicate to a Non-Jew about our religious relations would be equal to the killing of all the Jews, for if the Non-Jews knew what we teach about them, they would kill us openly." Christians and Muslims have to educate themselves to understand that Judaism is not only opposed to Christianity and Islam but teaches and advocates actions against all non-Jews including Christians -- as exemplified by the organized reaction of Jewry to the Mel Gibson film about the death of Christ.

[...]

The writer seems to have been gathering propaganda from various anti-Semitic sources. You can find lots of them on the Web, but I'm not going to link to them. This article cites nonexistent tractates like "Mechilla," "Mizbeach," "Iore Dea," and the "Libbre David," and nonexistent passages in actual works, whether in the Talmud or not. It has historical errors like the ones above about the contents of the New Testament and about the Talmud citing itself as "the Holy Talmud," and a comment later that there are no more Samaritans. There's lots of creative spelling and grammar too. I'm not a Talmudist and I don't have time to take up its claims one-by-one (the article is very long) but I hope Talmudists in the Blogosphere will give it a good going over. If you do comment on it, please drop me a note with the link address.

UPDATE (25 March): Reader Joe Slater e-mails regarding "Libbre David etc.":

Texts like these are interesting from an historical perspective, because they mutate so rapidly that it should (in theory at least) be possible to produce a family tree of anti-Jewish racism. Note the weird spellings which indicate to me that the alleged quotations have passed between several languages.

David Maddison from Australia has written and collected a huge amount on this. You can find his site here:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/8815/

Briefly, the source document was an anti-Jewish libel composed by a Russian priest named Pranaitis(sp?). This text, written around 1898 and translated around 1939 as "The Talmud Exposed" is the origin of all these quotes.

Here's David Maddison's collected refutation of the libels. Note that it's much harder to respond to libels than create them - anyone can make stuff up, but you need time and access to a library if you want to demonstrate that they are false.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/8815/exp.html